


Wrong setting

by ilse_writes



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Androids can daydream, Dialogue Heavy, Domestic Fluff, Going undercover, Idiots in Love, It's For a Case, M/M, Memory Alteration, Mentioned Hank Anderson, Mutual Pining, Protective Upgraded Connor | RK900, Temporary Character Death, Undercover action gone wrong, minor character injury, romantic dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 20:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22003825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilse_writes/pseuds/ilse_writes
Summary: Gavin and Nines go undercover to help out their co-workers. It all goes to shit and Nines needs major repairs. During those repairs, some zeros and ones get misplaced, altering some of Nines' memories. He comes back acting different, a good different if you ask Gavin Reed.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 14
Kudos: 228





	Wrong setting

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I need to work on Top Dog.
> 
> Also me: Let's write something else instead!

“I don’t like this.” Gavin drove his knife through the tournedos steak on his plate with more force than necessary. The meat was incredibly tender, his knife went through it like through the proverbial butter; hence why it now scratched across the delicate china, as if he was trying to cut the plate in two. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put him in this monkey suit –

His disgruntled thoughts were interrupted by a fork that was presented to him, a small bit of swordfish filet skewered on it. “Why don’t you try this, mon cherie?”

Gavin glared at the android across from him, yet he dutifully leaned forward and opened his mouth. He couldn’t look Nines in the eyes when he was spoonfed, instead he focused his glare on the place where there usually was an illuminated ring on his temple. The moodring wasn’t there tonight and Gavin was loathe to say he missed the little blinker. He bet it would be a lovely baby blue right now; Nines was as relaxed and content as Gavin ever saw him. His face held a softness it rarely showed when they were working, a gentleness Gavin hadn’t thought the android capable of when they started working together all those months ago. He’d been wrong about that, as he had been wrong about a lot of things when it came to the RK900 unit now dubbed Nines.

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Gavin said, chewing the swordfish. It was good. As was his tournedos by the way, he really wasn’t talking about the prime meat on his plate when he said he didn’t like this.

“I know,” Nines said with a gentle smile. “But we’re here now. Better make the best out of it.”

Gavin huffed and shook his head. “At least the food is good,” he conceded, biting the head of a green asparagus.

“Good food, even better company,” Nines answered sweetly and Gavin  _ really _ hoped all the sensors and processors in that computer brain of his were directed on their target and their surroundings, because his breath hitched embarrassingly at those words.

“Don’t say shit like that,” he managed to grunt out and it sounded pretty much the same like every other time he told the tin can to not be a smartass, so he thought he was safe on this one. Gavin liked going undercover for a stake out, it made something incredibly boring a hell of a lot more interesting. When undercover, you could get a lot closer to your target, sometimes you could even interact. However, their cover for tonight was a romantic dinner in one of the most expensive – mob owned – restaurants in town. It wasn’t even their own case; they were helping out Anderson and Connor. He didn’t mind that, they had just closed some cases of their own so they had some time to spare. It was the setting and the company that gave him trouble. It was one thing to harbor a crush on your work partner – something he only recently made peace with for himself – it was quite another thing to have said partner sitting across from you, calling you French petnames and offering you food of his plate.

Like lovers do.

Gavin had often imagined the things lovers do, with the lovers being him and the tall hunk of android that occupied the desk perpendicular to his.

Going out for dinner was not really something he had imagined doing with Nines. After all, the guy was an android. Androids don’t eat. So really, being fed another bite of swordfish wasn’t that big of a surprise. Nines had assured him he could ‘eat’ tonight; Gavin didn’t really understand the technicalities of it, but it came down to Nines having some sort of waste basket in his stomach.

“If I knew I was going to eat your portion too, I would’ve ordered a salad,” Gavin said after swallowing down the fish. “Or you could’ve done that, if you knew you couldn’t eat it all.”

“I promise you I have ordered according to my parameters,” Nines answered, sounding more like himself than he had done all night. “I just thought I would share it with you, as it is delicious.”

“It is,” Gavin admitted, trying not to get flustered over that last sentence. “Wait! What do you mean it’s delicious? I thought you couldn’t taste?”

Nines smiled wistfully, inclining his head a little. “You’re right, I can’t. However, I can analyse every ingredient and I have a fairly good grasp on which ingredients work well together.” Then he looked up again, smirking. “Besides, the Yelp reviews about this dish are unanimously positive.”

Their waiter came by their table, asking – in French – if they would like another drink. “Non, merci,” Nines answered easily, before switching back to English: “Would you like another Chardonnay, mon cherie?”

There was that ridiculous pet name again. Gavin hated it, yet he liked Nines using a pet name on him, even if it was something overly sweet like this. Contradicting feelings were something he was used to when it came to his partner. There was no one who could get under his skin like Nines did, not even Connor. He’d hated him for it. Hate came easy, with a healthy set of prejudices against androids already in place. Those prejudices melted away over time, as did the hate. Nines could still annoy him like crazy - the guy riled him up for fun, yet a mutual respect had grown between them over time, which did wonders for their work flow. They worked well together: Nines provided the logic, Gavin offered a view from outside the box.

At some point that out of the box thinking of him had made Gavin start looking at his partner in a new way. First, it was the physical attraction. Nines had shed his black and white CyberLife jacket one day – the fucker couldn’t say goodbye to it, no matter how deviant – revealing a black turtleneck that hugged his body in all the right ways. Gavin had almost choked on his coffee, resulting in Nines clapping him on the back to help him cough and making a fool of himself. A fool with a big coffee stain on his favourite hoodie.   
The romantic thoughts came later, attaching themselves to their everyday behaviour, giving a whole new meaning to things. For instance, the hand on his shoulder that was always there when Nines brought him coffee in the morning. The android started doing that after being chewed out by Gavin for the umpteenth time for being too stealthy. He overdid announcing his approach out of spite first: coughing loudly, dragging or stomping his feet, poking Gavin’s shoulder with a strong, pointy finger, things like that. It eventually evolved in a gentle hand on his shoulder, followed by Nines leaning over toward his desk to put the coffee down. It was all too easy to imagine the accompanying kiss on his cheek.

“So, what did you do?” Gavin asked when the waiter had poured him a glass of wine. “Download French.exe or something?”

“The RK models come equipped with a multitude of languages, French is one of them.”

“Is there also a software patch for undercover work?” Gavin wasn’t entirely sure why he was asking this. And whether he would like to know the answer. But it was out anyway.

“What do you mean?” Nines asked before suddenly leaning over, his hand coming up to Gavin’s face. “Hold on, you’ve got a little…” His fingers curled around Gavin’s jaw, his thumb swiping something from the corner of his mouth. “Got it.”

Red warmth flushed Gavin’s cheeks. “This!” Gavin gestured heatedly to himself, Nines and their table. “This shit. How do you know how to do this? How to behave?”

“Am I making you uncomfortable, Gavin?” Nines was nothing if not calm and Gavin tried to get himself in check for the sake of their cover. Although a lover’s quarrel would probably fit within their cover story, it would attract too much attention.

“No!” he spat. Then: “Yes.”

“I’m sorry, Gavin. That was never my intention.” The sincerity was clear in Nines’ face, as was the regret.

The detective sighed. “I know. You’re just playing a role.” And you’re doing it good enough to be nominated for an Oscar. He rubbed a hand across his face and sighed again. “Never mind. Give me a status update on our target.”

“Target is ready for dessert. Mr. Golzine has been by his table shortly, promising to come by later again. I expect him to stop by to have a coffee with him.” And have a chat about some sort of Red Ice merger. That was the whole reason they were here: the big fish Connor and Anderson were after, was looking to go into business with a whale: a mob boss, the owner of this fancy restaurant.

“Sounds like we are skipping dessert then. Weren’t we supposed to keep on schedule with him? How come we are still on our main course?”

“You don’t like sweets anyway,” the android retorted with a small smirk. “And to answer your earlier question: it’s possible for me to implement certain behavioral patterns to my parameters, to ensure the success of the mission. However –“

Things had all gone to shit at that moment. Their cover was blown. How or why was a question Gavin was still breaking his head over. As if he didn’t have enough of a headache already. He gingerly touched the bandage on his head. He got a nasty gash on the back of his head and to cover it they had wrapped the bandage all around his head. He looked like he had brain surgery instead of a cut that was glued shut in the hospital. Other than his head, his injuries were minor. Some small cuts and scrapes, an ugly bruise spanning across his rib cage from front to back. It could have been a lot worse if it weren’t for Nines.

It all went so fast. At first Gavin thought their waiter had returned, only it wasn’t the French speaking dude, it was someone that made Nines get up out of his seat immediately, his hand stretched out protectively towards Gavin. Trouble number 1 was joined by number 2 and 3 and others were waiting for them just outside their line of sight at the back of the restaurant. They had fucked up majorly. How could they have missed that Golzine’s muscle had eyes on them?

To prevent civilian casualties they had followed the gangsters outside. Only they weren’t going outside, they were led into a basement. Outside was backup, not inside that basement. Not yet, at least.

Back up came, full force, but only after Gavin was unconscious and Nines riddled with bullet holes. The thirium had gone invisible by the time Gavin was fully awake again, yet he could tell his fancy dress shirt was soaked with it. Nines had been his human – android – shield.

Gavin nursed his split knuckles, blowing cool breath on them. His hand was sore from a little incident that happened after the fucked up stake out; Connor’s had some hard ass plating. He fell back against the couch, groaning when the movement hurt his body. It wouldn’t surprise him if he would find more bruises on his torso come morning; he took quite a beating.

The only reason he was at home and not at the CyberLife facility where they were fixing up Nines, was that Fowler ordered him to go home. Normally he wouldn’t listen to such an order, he hadn’t at first. Connor explained to him it would take at least two days to get Nines fixed up, it was no use to sit there for two days. Gavin didn’t listen to the 800-model: he hit him square on the jaw. An female android technician gave him ice to put on his hand and gave him a forty hour estimate for Nines to be fully functional again. Gavin set a timer on his phone and went home. Still 36 hours to go.

His partner died. And in 36 hours he would live again. Fucking androids.

Nines died. To protect him.

Fuck.

Gavin needed a drink.

A fair part of those 36 hours were spent drinking and after that, nursing a hangover. He was forbidden to set foot into the station anyway, after decking Connor. It got him two mandatory sick days. Fowler let him off easy.

Gavin woke up before his alarm, wondering why he was already awake. He frowned at his pillow, scrunched up his nose at the ceiling and eventually rolled out of bed. Then he heard it again. Sounds, coming from inside his home. He quickly checked his room for his cat. She wasn’t in her usual spot at the foot of the bed, so there was a possibility that Missy was mucking about in the living room, causing the noise. That would be the first time for her to do that, so Gavin picked up his gun from his nightstand. Better safe than sorry.

“It’s probably nothing,” he muttered softly before he opened his bedroom door, expertly keeping cover behind the door. He didn’t see anything in his living room. That left the kitchen.

He almost pulled his gun on what he found in the kitchen. Gavin quickly tossed the weapon on the counter when he recognized his unexpected guest and clutched his shirt instead, like some old lady who got a scare.   
“Nines! What the fuck! You nearly gave me a heart attack! I almost shot you!”

The android ignored what he said, though he stopped looking through the cupboards and turned his gaze on Gavin. “Good morning! Did you move the coffee?”   
The LED on his temple was back, calmly spinning blue.

“What? No?” Gavin had trouble keeping up with the situation. What was Nines doing in his kitchen? Why was he looking for the coffee? How did he get in anyway?

“Ah, found it!” His android partner held up the coffee tin in triumph. “Why don’t you take a seat? This will be done in a minute.”

Too dumbfounded to do anything else, Gavin sat himself down at the kitchen table. He stared at the android, looking for an explanation for all this. Nines busied himself in the kitchen, making coffee. He moved around with ease, as if he did this every day. Gavin did a mental count of the times Nines had been in his home: he didn’t even need all of his fingers to make the count. And Nines had never made him coffee before, at least not in his home, not in his kitchen. So what was this bullshit about him moving the coffee to another spot? It was not likely the android knew where it was in the first place. He only came to Gavin’s place to pick him up or to bring over the occasional file. He never stayed long.

A strong hand settled gently on his shoulder, Nines leaning over him to put the coffee on the table. “There you go, mon cherie,” he said cheerily, followed by a lingering kiss on the detective’s cheek.

Gavin almost headbutted the android in the chest in his kneejerk reaction. The action made his head hurt and he grabbed the back of his head instinctively.

“Gavin! What happened? Are you hurt?” Nines gathered Gavin’s head against his chest immediately and combed with his fingers hurriedly through his hair to find the cut. Gavin had taken the bandages off yesterday and the cut was nicely hidden underneath his hair; not that it stayed hidden for long, not with an RK900 searching for it.

He knew by the way his head was kept still that Nines was scanning the wound. “It’s healing nicely,” the android tutted above him, as if Gavin wasn’t still reeling from what was happening right now. Nines moved his hands to the sides of Gavin’s face, turning his face towards him. “How did you get this?” he asked all concerned. “Did this happen while I was at the CyberLife facility? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Gavin stared wide eyed at his partner, completely stupefied. What in the everloving fuck was happening? Why was Nines being all touchy feely with him? Or, more importantly, why did it seem like all the touching and stuff was completely normal to Nines? And how come he didn’t remember they both got hurt two days ago? Gavin opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He shut it again, looking like a fish out of water. 

Nines pressed his lips together and frowned for a second. “You’ve got to look after yourself, mon cherie. Especially when I’m not with you,” he said earnestly. “We’ve got a dangerous job, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. Or worse.” He sealed his little speech with a kiss, catching Gavin’s lips with practiced ease.

It was nothing like Gavin imagined it would be like to kiss Nines. It was better.

Which is why this must be a dream. A confusing but oh so lovely dream.

Nines straightened up and let his hands slide away from Gavin’s face. “You should get dressed, mon cherie. We have to be at the station in half an hour.”

“I’ve got the morning off,” Gavin managed to say. “I was…” He looked down at his state of dress: a boxershort and an old band shirt. And Nines didn’t even bat an eye! Gavin shook his head, ignoring the headache it caused. “I was gonna pick you up,” he said, firmer than before. He looked at the clock in the kitchen. “You were not supposed to wake up for another three hours.”

Nines smiled at him. “That is sweet of you. But I was done early, so I took a cab home.”

“Home?” Gavin did another fish impersonation. 

“Yes?” Nines tilted his head to the side, looking puzzled. “Gavin, is something the matter? You’re acting a bit… weird.” His LED showed his confusion, circling alternately in yellow and blue.

“I’m not weird! You’re weird!” Gavin shot back in reflex. “I mean - Shit. Nines… you died. They counted 18 bullet holes on you! Fucking 18!” At some point he started yelling. “You died and now you’re here and you’re in my kitchen, looking for the coffee tin that’s in the same place as it always is! And you died! You fucking died, Nines! You died protecting me! And then you come back and fucking kiss me!”

Allright. Having an emotional meltdown was the way to go apparently.

The blue on his partner’s temple disappeared, making way for red. Gavin felt quite same way, if his erratic heartbeat was any indication. Nines stood two steps away from him, frozen like a statue. The only movement was the whirring of his LED. Red, red, bloody red. Gavin angrily wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. His hand came back wet. 

He took a deep breath and stepped towards Nines, gently gripping his forearm. “Just… just sit down with me, tin can. I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”   
Gavin led Nines towards the sofa and sat him down. The android kept staring at him, his eyes wide and his LED going wild. 

The detective reached out again and took Nines’ hand. The guy already kissed him, surely he could hold his hand when he was flipping out. He squeezed it, in what he hoped was a reassuring way and not just the ‘I feel like 16 all over again and I really hope my palms aren’t sweaty’ way.    
“You okay there, Nines?” he asked tentatively.

A terse nod was the answer. A moment later Nines spoke. “I believe my memory files are compromised. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

Gavin pulled his hand back and slapped the android across the arm. “For fucks sake, you fucking robot!” He shook out his hand, the same hand he used to punch Connor. He caught Nines looking at it, maybe already doing another scan. Nothing to see there, nothing more than some bruised knuckles and split skin. He took a deep breath and started again. “You mind filling me in what the problem is with your memory files?”

Nines was uncharacteristically silent; he usually had an answer before Gavin even finished his question. The lack of eye contact was also out of character, the android clearly found himself out of his comfort zone.    
“It seems some memory files got mixed up,” he answered abashedly. 

“You know which ones?”

Nines nodded, still not really looking at his partner. “I do now. Your…  _ outburst _ made me attentive to files that were recently sealed away. I previously believed I had regular maintenance done, but that was not the case, was it?”

Gavin scoffed. “I wouldn’t call coming back from the death regular maintenance, no.”

Nines picked up on Gavin’s trouble with that particular situation.    
“I did it to protect you.” The simple statement made Gavin shiver, as if his spine suddenly heated up and turned into ice directly after.

“Well, let’s hope you won’t have to do drastic shit like that anymore in the future.” Uncomfortable with the whole ‘my partner died for me’ part of the conversation, Gavin decided to change the topic. “So, what was up with the whole ‘mon cherie’ thing just now? You got stuck in undercover mode?”

“Something like that,” Nines admitted. And wasn’t that atypical, him giving cryptical answers like that? Nines usually was nothing but straightforward in his speech. 

A loudly ringing phone interrupted them. The thing was still in his bedroom and Gavin realised he was also still only wearing boxers and a T-shirt. He hurried towards the bedroom, picking the mobile phone up with one hand and opening his drawers with the other. He was  _ not _ getting back out into the living room without some pants.

“Detective Reed.” It was Connor.

“The fuck you want, Connie?” Gavin grunted, hopping around on one leg to get his sweatpants on.

“I am looking for Nines. He left CyberLife early this morning and he is not at his apartment. I can’t reach him. The records of his repairs showed some irregularities and, frankly, I’m starting to get a bit worried.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, your tin brother is here.” Gavin clutched the phone between his shoulder and chin, pulling up his pants.

“He’s with you?” Connor sounded genuinely surprised. Then he chuckled softly. “Figures…”

The detective grabbed the phone again. “What do you mean?”

Another soft laugh from Connor. “Nothing, detective. I’m just happy to know my brother is in the right place.” The call disconnected after that.

“The fuck was that?” Gavin frowned at his phone before he stuffed it in his pocket. “Yo, Nines, your annoying brother is worried about you,” he called out, walking back into the living room. 

“I know, he just reached out to me.” Nines quickly explained his communication channels were closed, also a leftover of the extensive repairs. “I ran a check and found more anomalies. I had to change some settings.” 

Gavin took a seat on the armrest of the sofa, feeling nervous again now it seemed they would continue their previous conversation. “So, everything is back to normal now?”

The android indeed looked like his usual self again, his LED a steady blue. “I believe it is, yes.”

“No more undercover mode?” Gavin would miss that doting side of Nines. Now that he had had a glimpse, he was hooked.

“Not unless you like being called ‘mon cherie’,” Nines said with a smile. What the fuck? Was he teasing right now?

“I hate French,” Gavin muttered, crossing his arms in front of his chest and trying to keep the incriminating red colour out of his face.

“I’ll think of something else, then,” Nines amended. He was clearly teasing now. 

“Still doesn’t explain why you thought you knew where to find my coffee tin,” Gavin retorted, getting into detective mode. Anything to stop talking about pet names. “You thought I put it somewhere else. But it has always been in the same cabinet, the most right one.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Nines reacted, taking the bait. “Your coffeemaker is to the left. Why would you keep the coffee that far away?”

“Because that is where I enter the kitchen. I grab the coffee, I grab a mug and I turn on the machine.”

“That is far from efficient!” Nines was really into this. “That way you are opening two cabinets -”

“You really gave this some thought, didn’t you?” Gavin started to laugh at his partner, yet it died in his throat when he saw the abashed look on the android’s face. “The fuck? You really did!”

“My premonition software,” Nines admitted quietly. “Some of the memory files that got mixed up came from there. I mistook them for real memories.”

“You…” Gavin needed a moment to let that sink in. To  _ really _ acknowledge the implications of that statement. Nines showed up in his home, ready to make him coffee, served with a kiss for crying out loud, all based on some misplaced files from his premonition software. 

That…

Gavin ungraciously slid down from the armrest to the seat of the sofa. He needed to sit down properly for this.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

“No, no,” Gavin uttered, waving Nines’ concerns away with a distracted move of his hand. “You spooked the shit out of me when you broke into my apartment, but other than that…” His voice died away. He already said more than he originally planned. As if any of this was planned; he was winging it from the moment he woke up.

Uncomfortable silences were hard to fill when you were just winging it. When your thoughts were doing 90 miles a minute and kept coming back to the same, unbelievable, conclusion.

“You have been daydreaming about me,” Gavin whispered, more to himself than to the android with whom he was having on and off eye contact for several minutes already. God, this shit was weird.

"Yes… and I also kissed you," Nines countered dryly. "To be honest, I am surprised you're still in the same room with me."

Gavin laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, well, me too." He leaned his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. "Fuck, this is a mess."

"Then let's break it down to the basics," Nines said, suddenly all business like. "I made you coffee in your own home. Did you like that?"

Gavin peeked to the side, to where his partner sat. Nines was sitting all prim and proper, all his attention directed towards Gavin and an encouraging smile on his face. What was up with that? Nines hardly ever smiled this clearly. He decided to play along. "Apart from thinking you were a burglar? Yes."

"I kissed you on the cheek. Any problems in that area?"

The detective fought the urge to hide his face again. "... No."

"I hugged you against me. Was that okay?"

"Ye-es?"

"I also kissed you on the lips. Did you like -"

The detective threw up his hands and turned towards his infuriating partner. "What the fuck is this? Twenty questions?! Yes, I fucking liked it. Are you happy now ?! Got any more stupid questions?"

"Just one, Gavin," Nines said with a serene smile. "Can I do it again?"


End file.
